The Chilean Miner Diet

At midnight local time, the 33 Chilean miners who have been sitting under 2,300 feet of rock since August 5th will begin to emerge from their makeshift refuge in a specially designed rescue pod. The miners have long since surpassed the world record for time spent underground. All of the men, ranging in age from 19 to 63, have been using the same makeshift latrine, multiple times a day, for months on end. Their living space is roughly 50 square meters and always a humid 85 F.

The stresses these men are under are enormous, and they are not out of the woods yet. The rescue operation should bring the miners up one at a time through a drilled shaft, but even this is fraught with peril. The miners will have to cope with extreme changes as they come back to the surface. For instance, due to lack of light exposure, their retinas will be essentially paralyzed, meaning they could be blinded if exposed immediately to sunlight.

For months on end, the miners have been maintained with a steady and very particular diet. The men and women responsible for their health even called in NASA, who have provided advice based on their experience supporting astronauts in space. There is little doubt that the strategic dietetic choices have greatly tilted the balance in favor of the miners' survival.

To find out more about just what the miners have gone through, we consulted with Manuel Villacorta, a registered dietitian (RD), owner of EatingFree.com, and a national spokesperson for the American Dietetic Association.

The stress

According to Villacorta, the Chilean miners' bodies are likely in a hypermetabolic state; the stress of life in the hole forces an increase in the release of stress hormones that boost respiration and heart rate. These stress hormones also pull sugar from cells and make it available in the blood and muscles so that a person can respond to the threatening situation around them. This expends a lot of energy, meaning that other systems in the body are getting shortchanged, including digestion, which may lead to a loss of appetite or an immune response, leaving the miners more vulnerable to infection and illness.

It is, therefore, little surprise to Villacorta that the menu, which was approved by the Chilean Department of Health, addressed this heightened state of stress. This diet was not about providing these guys with all the right vitamins and minerals; instead, the protein and carbohydrate content reminds Villacorta of what you see in the rations of a soldier at war — a startling analogy that illustrates just how stressful the lives of these Chilean miners have been over the past months.

Dietary response: Menu items such as meat stew with pasta salad, stroganoff with pasta primavera and shredded beef or chicken in sauce, as well as caramel spread and honey, provide good sources of protein and simple carbohydrates. Additionally, the menu is not without a psychological component in the manner of comfort food. A stressed miner, depressed and with a decreased appetite, could be inspired to eat if the item has some psychological impact. Originally from Peru, Villacorta said that just such an item on the miners' menu is mote con huesillos, a native Chilean sweet drink made with peaches and wheat.